a special film screening and poetry event
cosponsored by the Autism Society of Minnesota
Thursday, March 29, 2018, 6:30 pm
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis
As a special precursor to National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month, the Autism Society of Minnesota and Rain Taxi invite you to a special evening with and about a remarkable young poet named DJ Savarase. Our program, which celebrates the publication of Savarese’s chapbook A Doorknob for an Eye and the feature film Deej, will include a screening of the film and a Q&A session with DJ himself. Chapbooks and DVDs will be available for purchase. Don’t miss this opportunity to redefine “normal” and to see “what the ideal of full inclusion requires but also what it can accomplish."
This event is free and open to the public,
but please RESERVE SEATS HERE.
Just added: We are pleased to announce that the work of two Minnesota poets with autism will also be presented at this event! Meghana Junnuru, a non-verbal autistic, is a joyful and savvy poet whose work addresses many disability topics. Chetan Junnuru is an adventurous writer who is using poetry to heal his heart and also to reach the hearts of other individuals with autism. Meghana and Chetan are siblings with autism who maintain the blog Grow Our Joy to share their inner thoughts and progress with as wide an audience as possible.
Read Meghana’s review of DEEJ here!
About the Author, the Film, and the Chapbook:
Abandoned by his birth parents and presumed incompetent, DJ (“Deej”) found not only a loving family but also a life in words, which he types on a text-to-voice synthesizer. The film Deej shows how he deals with high school and dreams of college, confronting society's obstacles to inclusion and the sometimes paralyzing beauty of his own senses along the way. As part of his advocacy on behalf of other nonspeaking autistics he embraces filmmaking and poetry, and discovers what having a voice can truly mean. A Doorknob for an Eye is published by Unrestricted Interest, a small press dedicated to transforming poetry through the voices of those with autism.